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Nov 13, 2012

Gypsy Queen Dual Rack Pack Break Highlights

There are times when packs sit on my shelf of cards for months at a time. "This time I will write something grandiose about these cards," I think to myself. "This time the scans will be known the world over and then phase 2!" Actually, none of those thoughts occur in exactly that way, but it's true that I like to scan in bunches. There will be nothing grandiose about this entry as well. Sorry, I left my trumpets at my other blog.

Gypsy Queen was my siren last year (2011). It drew me in with the subtle game of playing hard-to-get. The packs flirted with me at Fanfest, tantalizing me with the $10 price tag. Then, they came into startling vision at my local Target, singing unto me their glorious contents. I caved and was pulled in, forever smitten by the Gypsy Queen. Would the 2012 version be so rewarding and alluring?

The thing I like best about the Gypsy Queen base set is the retired players sprinkled throughout with the strange photo filter they use. It doesn't work all the time, but there are enough times where one can say it makes a spectacular card. The design is certainly ornate.

One such example that I like is this Bob Gibson. He's not intimidating, he's a retro-vintage art-deco piece.

Hunter Pence is an anachronistic player if there ever was one. Too bad they don't show his socks here.

Future Stars Desmond Jennings is an example of one of the retail only inserts from this edition (if I remember right). They are very similar to the 2011 version.

The Hallmark Heroes are also a retail-only insert. Nolan Ryan wants to give you a card.....attached to a ball traveling 100 mph.

And of course with a retro-vintage product there are minis like this Gypsy Queen back mini of someone I don't know because there is no name on the back (though the card number would reveal it) and another mini of Josh Reddick.
And here are more minis: a Nick Swisher black border mini, a future NL MVP mini, and a legendary mini.

Of course, the raison d'etre of these rack packs are the bonus 3 card packs. It's like you bought 3 packs and were rewarded with three cards of a colorful variety. In Gypsy Queen, this is especially effective because the raised border cards from last year were among the most intoxicating of them all. This year's edition were bronze, textured, and ready to be put in the baroque section of an antiquities museum, especially that Duke Snider.
How was this foray into the land of the Gypsy Queen and was I able to weave its way out from the entangling spell cast by yesteryear? Well, after this, I got a hobby box (to be posted at some later date), but have decided to not cast the line for master set completion. Crisis averted; I can wander free without the siren song for 2012.